Welcome to the first Offseason Report of 2017-18!
NEW YORK
Point Lookout
Trips began to pick a few cod each day on the party boat Captain Al, Capt. Tom Weiss said. The fishing looked promising, and none was hooked this time last year aboard. Currently, the cod hooked were all keepers from 5 pounds to yesterday’s 23-pound pool-winner. None was a throwback, and the best fishing for them was in 45 to 60 feet of water in the ocean. No cod, only dogfish, bit beyond 60-foot depths. So the cod swam shallow water close to shore. As the ocean becomes colder, cod usually move to deeper, warmer water farther from the coast. The ocean on the fishing grounds was 46 to 48 degrees. The temperature was 48 degrees and higher last week. Snow and cold weather this past week dropped the temp. Forty-two to 45 degrees usually fishes best for the fish. January is usually the peak month, but one never knows when the best angling for them will happen. Jump aboard while they’re biting. Most of the cod were clammed, and a few were jigged. Many of the cod spit up herring and mackerel. When fish like that are around, jigging can work. Annual, daily trips for cod began Friday on the boat. The vessel was blackfishing daily until then, and New York’s blackfish season closed beginning that day. A few cod had begun to be hooked during the blackfishing. The vessel is this website’s only that sails for cod daily each winter. The trips are running 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day, except no trips will fish on Christmas and New Year’s days. See More Info. Call: 516-623-2248.
DELAWARE/MARYLAND
Striped bass fishing was slow off Delaware and Maryland in the ocean, according to online reports. Boaters from Delaware traveled north to catch the rockfish off southern New Jersey, where the stripers still bit. Surf fishing for stripers in Delaware was also slow. Spiny dogfish seemed the predominant catch there. Few stripers were entered in last week’s Ocean City Marlin & Tuna Club Rockfish Tournament from Ocean City, Md., and those that were entered seemed boated off South Jersey. The ocean off South Jersey was 45 or 46 degrees, and off Delaware and Maryland wasn’t much warmer. Some anglers in Delaware and Maryland were concerned that stripers might school beyond 3 miles from shore, where striper fishing is closed, when the migration arrives. The water is somewhat warmer there. Striper fishing on Delaware Bay produced throwbacks for Delaware boaters. No keepers were heard about recently. Blackfishing sounded decent off Delaware on the ocean.
VIRGINIA
Virginia Beach
Rockfish or striped bass were boated far up Chesapeake Bay, a report said on Virginia Beach Fishing Center’s website. That was too far to sail from the Fishing Center, but some customers relocated their boats to docks farther up the bay to take advantage. One angler posted a report on Facebook about whacking large stripers, lots, on the northern Chesapeake on Dec. 6. The fish blew up on bunker and were hooked on cast lures and released. No stripers were really around near Virginia Beach. Local boaters made good catches of sea bass on the ocean around Norfolk Canyon. Speckled sea trout, puppy drum and bluefish bit in Rudee Inlet. Visit Website.
NORTH CAROLINA
Hatteras
The period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is slow-going for the local charter fleet “for obvious reasons,” a report said on the website from <b>Teach’s Lair Marina</b>. But when trips sailed, they landed king mackerel and wahoos. Who’s going to catch a bluefin tuna first? the report asked. The run of bluefins was impending that shows up off the local coast in winter. The first bluefins are usually taken farther south, off Atlantic Beach and Morehead City, N.C. That could happen soon, and none was reported caught yet. Visit Website.